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Sunday, January 19, 2014

Beyond the Expected (Isaiah 49:1-7)

The “church” today is not the church
your grandparents knew . . . nor is it the church that your parents were
familiar with . . . and, odds are, as you look around at the state of the
“church” today, it is not the church you grew up with.In the current state of upheaval within the
traditional “church”—or “church” as we think we know it—we scratch our heads
and think that this is nothing like we expected . . . this is a whole new,
crazy, and scary creature that we are dealing with.We are living within a paradox of what Jesus
called us to . . . what we are . . . and, what we should be in the eyes and
heart of Jesus.We are called to go
beyond the expected.These are
frustrating and scary times that we are living in as the faithful.

The “church” is changing.The
“church” is changing whether we are ready of not for it.There has been a major shift from what once
was a program focus of congregations—doing things for the faithful like Sunday
school classes, Bible studies, women and men’s groups, youth groups—to a more
missional focus that calls for the congregation to look beyond itself out into
the world and serve others beyond the confines of the church.There is a call to return to the spiritual
life . . . the inner life . . . to drive the outer life.A call to know thyself in order to know God’s
will in one’s life.A call to understand
one’s relationship with God and how that calls the individual out to serve
others.Churches are not conducting
business the way that they used to conduct business . . . the times are
changing . . . and, they are becoming more Christ-like than ever before.

But, we never expected this.In
fact, this is where the frustration comes into play with the struggle between
what once was, what is, and what is coming . . . many of us have realized in
our faith journeys that what we have is exactly what we expected.It meets our needs.It makes us feel fulfilled.It works for us.It is good stuff . . . faithful stuff.Our expectations are exactly what the doctor
ordered; yet, we look around and we see change taking place that upsets our
expectations.It is frustrating . . .
and, if we are honest, it is scary.

Understand . . . what we have is not bad.What we have in the “church” has worked for
generations . . . churches and congregations have grown in what we have . . .
things got done . . . and, we all felt fulfilled.Yet, statistics show that the “church” is
changing . . . churches and congregations are beginning to disappear . . .
denominations are growing smaller . . . things are not being done the way that
we used to do them, yet things are getting done . . . and, fulfillment is now
coming in new ways that we have never experienced before.Success is being measured differently . . .
not in numbers, but in relationships.

This is a sort of epiphany-like revelation.Remember that an epiphany is a revelation of
the glory . . . a revelation of the Holy . . . an understanding of God and
God’s ways.The problem is that it is
not an epiphany that has come suddenly and with great clarity . . . it has
seemingly snuck up on us, tapping us on the shoulder, and revealed itselfslowly and quietly as it has begun to gain
momentum.Momentum that is getting more
and more difficult to ignore.Nonetheless, the Holy has and is being revealed in this changing
environment of the “church”.

What we are dealing with today is better than what we ever expected . .
. it is a return to what Jesus called his followers to.We know that what Jesus lived, represented, and
called his followers to, was not well received in his time or since.In listening to the prophets, the people had
certain expectations of what the Messiah would be and do . . . this is
partially due to the fact that the people were like all good humans who used
their selective hearing to hear what they wanted.They took what they liked and ignored the
rest.For example, our reading this
morning from Isaiah.

Tunnel vision makes it difficult to see the world that is beyond the
scope of what one can see through a scope . . . can’t see what is to the left
or right . . . can’t see what is behind or up or down.You can only see what is directly in
front.So it was for the people of
Israel who picked and chose the words of the prophet that they wanted to hear
concerning the Messiah.In their
estimation, the Messiah was theirs and theirs only . . . destined to save only
them.Yet, Isaiah says that as true as
that statement is, God had even greater expectations for the Messiah . . . the
Messiah would save all people . . . save all of God’s children.Isaiah even quotes God as saying that the
Chosen One, the Messiah, would be a “light for the Gentiles, that you may bring
my salvation to the ends of the earth.”The expectations of the children of Israel were
going to be met, but what God really wanted went beyond the expected . . . went
beyond the expected to something even bigger and better than they could accept
or realize at the time.

Thus it is that we see the frustration of the people with Jesus and his
ministry.We see the anger of the people
when Jesus does not solely focus on them.We see the murmuring and complaining when Jesus choses to minister to
those outside of the so-called family.We see the confusion when Jesus pushes the boundaries of the teachings
and law.And, we see that in the end
this gets him crucified on a cross.Yeah, Jesus was what they expected and so much more.

But, who are any of us to go against the will of God?

The “church” of our grandparents and parents . . . the “church” we grew
up with . . . none of them are representative of what the people of Jesus’s
time expected.It cannot be because the
“church” is not a box that we fit our faith into; the “church” is a living and
growing spirit or movement that keeps growing with each generation as it is
experienced, interpreted, and developed to meet the call of God in a certain
time and place.It is constantly growing
and changing . . . whether we can accept it or not.

God has always called us beyond the expected . . . called to something
bigger and better.Living with in the
expectations we have is nice, but what we are called to is even better.We are called, like the Messiah, to reach
within to discover the world outside of the “church” . . . to love the Lord
completely, and to love others . . . that has always been the expectation.As well as we have done that in the past in
the ways that we do it, the Spirit is moving us to a different direction and
way of doing “church”.The “church” is
changing whether we are willing to change with it . . . what we have is good,
but what we can have is even better.

Embrace the present to receive the future . . . things are not always
what we expect . . . sometimes they are even better.That is what God said to the Messiah . . .
and, if it was good enough for the Chosen One, it should be good enough for
us.Amen.